Daily Devotions by Pastor Dan Stone of My Church at the Flora-Bama

People from all over came to see the very first ever display of Christmas Lights. The year was 1880. The place was New Jersey. The man who put up this mesmerizing display was none other than Thomas Edison, the inventor of the first light bulb. It was just an year earlier, December 31, 1879 that Edison made the first public demonstration of the incandescent light bulb.

Today, 137 years after that first display of Christmas lights, we continue the tradition at our homes, our parks, our main streets and department stores. It’s as mesmerizing to me, now, as when I was a child. Certain things are like that, aren’t they? Certain things fill our hearts just as much now and when we first saw or experienced them. The number of those things are small, but their impact on our lives is huge!

I wonder if our faith is one of those things?

In the last book of the Christian Bible, Revelation, the writer named John quotes Jesus as he heard Him in a vision that God was giving him. John heard Jesus say in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 4, “ I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first.”

As you did at first.

There was a time that they did love Jesus and love each other.

There was a time when Jesus was everything and loving each other was not an option.

But life has changed.

Things are different.

Time has gone on.

Love God and Loving others isn’t as mesmerizing as it used to be.

It has become ‘old hat.’

What if our love for God was as beautiful and exciting as it was the very first time we heard the Gospel? What if our love for others was as fresh and heartfelt as it was when we first started this faith journey?

What if?

My prayer for you and I today is that our Love for God and our Love for others is refreshed and revived. That our passion for our faith is a mesmerizing for us today as it was the day Jesus rescued us.